Swift Work

Taylor Swift Tops the Charts . . . with Nine Seconds of White Noise

In perhaps the clearest sign yet that 2014 Taylor Swift is an unstoppable force that could probably win a presidential election if she decided it were worth her time, a track of nine seconds of white noise credited to Swift has reached the top of the Canadian charts. Yes, due to some kind of iTunes error, a song titled as “Track 3”—credited to Swift—was listed as available off of Swift’s forthcoming 1989. Canadian Swifties—perhaps assuming it was some sort of secret track, or else adhering to a “We Blindly Buy Whatever Swift Sells” maxim—lapped it up (presumably without clicking “Preview” to get a taste of what they were buying beforehand), sending the track to the top of the Canadian charts.

In fact, the song—which was eventually taken down—was comprised of nine seconds of white noise. (Though, could it have possibly been nine seconds of Olivia Benson meowing?!? Did anyone check that out? We would pay way more than $1.29 for that.) Swift has yet to comment on the incident, though we are patiently waiting for her wry Tumblr commentary about the snafu (her Tumblr is an excellent afternoon-break read, by the way). Expect an Avicii remix of “Track 3”—and a slew of plaintive YouTube covers—by day’s end.